An inflammatory report with racist overtones may have landed CBS News head Bari Weiss in hot water with the network.
According to a report from media watchdog Status, Weiss enthusiastically promoted a strained report that appeared to try to link Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to the Sept. 11 attacks 25 years ago, which infuriated high-ranking network executives.
According to the report, CBS News “published a post on X at 8:18 a.m. Monday” warning that Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed “may be facing the risk of renewed scrutiny and fresh political attack” over old social media posts tied to the 25th anniversary of Sept. 11. The posts, which El-Sayed had deleted, were widely seen as unremarkable — even CBS News itself had previously noted the pandemic killed more Americans than the 9/11 attacks. Critics on X immediately slammed the story.
Status’ Oliver Darcy reported that Weiss “praised the story during the network’s daily editorial meeting Monday, signaling her support for the piece to the entire network,” adding, “I’m told that Weiss even personally directed that the headline be tweaked to specifically mention that El-Sayed had deleted tweets referencing the September 11 terrorist attacks.”
That set off a firestorm at CBS News headquarters.
“Many employees inside the David Ellison-owned newsroom viewed the story with disdain, believing it served as yet another blemish calling into question the organization’s objectivity under new ownership,” Status is reporting, adding that “… the issue had been raised by senior CBS News staff with the network’s standards department, though it is unclear what action that arm of the outlet could take, given Weiss’ enthusiasm for the story.”
“They took a small nugget of news, forced into something much larger, and messed up,” one CBS News staffer told Status. A former senior staffer was blunter, calling the piece “shameful” and telling Status, “The racism is overt.”
Darcy observed, “For staffers already worried about the direction Weiss is taking CBS News, the episode only added to their concerns.”
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